March 2013

Success is NOT Debt

How do you measure success? I believe Americans judge one’s success by the size of their mortgage or house. I want us to break the paradigms of societal norms and judge success by freedom. Imagine being debt free. If not debt free then without being a slave to debt by having a minimal amount that allows control over spending and the ability to go anywhere.

As little as 100 years ago, when my grandfathers were children it was not expected to own a house. Homes were required for farmers, but many people were transient laborers.  For them a bed roll and a horse had more practicality than “bricks and sticks” planted in a single locale. Prior to World War II Americans were far more agrarian and lived on larger lots to homestead. Cities were dense in population and apartments ruled the day. My great grandmother ran a boarding house for coal miners. Boarding houses are now lost to another time.

Immediately following World War II came the invention of “suburbia”. Starting in Levittown, New York anyone could buy the new American dream – a house.  I refer to these early, 1,000 square foot structures as apartment with thick walls: grass.  Denser than rural areas, but more spacious, a new living arrangement was sold to the American people. Fueled by a rapid shift in post war production to automobiles the time required to travel distances were shortened significantly.  Families could escape urban lifestyle and commuter to work.

It was in the 1950 we began training future generations to believe happiness was measured by their subdivision, brick facade, and picket fence. Along the way our parents stole freedom from us. We could only be judged successful when we had a job, married, and bought a house. Not buying a house, and quietly enslaving ourselves to 30 years of payments three times the amount of the original principal, meant we were failures. Once purchased a cycle of accumulation was required; consumerism built through the fifties and sixties by a never ending flow of cheap, meaningless merchandise from countries never heard of.

The 1990s brought us “McMansions” – homes of epic proportion. With 4 and 5 bedrooms, game rooms, media rooms and excessively large bathrooms accelerated by easy money financing anyone could look like a Vanderbilt. Again, judgment of failure fell upon those failing to keep up with the Jones’.  Furthermore, Americans found need for storage units to keep all of their stuff: the trinkets bought at stores like Garden Ridge and Pier 1.  My personal opinion, two stores that supply absolutely nothing anyone needs, but distribute trinkets made through near forced labor.

In 2008 financial mayhem fell across our country and housing sales stopped. To this day the National Association of Realtors reports we have bottomed out and housing is recovering. Fortunately, data exposes lies and their story has yet to come true.  In February 2013, five years into the Great Recession, housing sales totaled 131,000 for the entire month when backing out investor and foreclosure sales.  It is again now I ask again, “does debt or a mortgage determine one’s success?” Of course, success is personal.  Judged by others though it continues as an expectation; we must own homes to meet society’s norms. My wife and I are pushing back.

We recently moved to Florida to be near my kids after being forced away in 2009. We had planned to buy a house until we started looking. It was appalling what our money would buy: shoddy construction for $300k, homes ten feet from the neighbor’s for $275k, and a piece of dirt for $70k, or an effective $280k per acre. Why, because the Fed’s $85billion per month quantitative easing feeds a desire for cheap money. Lastly, what if something changes? In other words job opportunities, job loss, society degradation, illness, or any other reason. Why would we want to be anchored to 5,000 square feet of Volusia County Florida?

So how do we gain freedom? Break the mortgage race:  if debt is required don’t commit to dirt. I’ve seen too many people pass opportunities during the Great Recession because they were connected to a house, not a “home” with their family. A house is just the container, a home is the programming delivered inside. Thus, a compromise to take our home where we want to go can bring the best situation.  For now LeeAnn and I are foregoing bricks and sticks containers for one with mobility. We will see in six months how it feels and whether we moved far. Regardless, knowing we can brings peace.

Wireless Networking for RVs

Wireless Networking for RV

Living full time in an RV brings many challenges.  The toughest is how to connect to the internet.  Options exist and I am not going to go into those in much details as there are several links to describe this such as the excellent Mobile Internet Options article on Technomads. The obvious solutions like phones, air cards, and hot spots provide a method to get the information highway.  However, bandwidth and cost go together so they do not necessarily work, or should be reserved for times where there are no other options.

Wi-Fi is the holy grail of bandwidth and freedom – if you don’t have to pay for it.  So, I went seeking solutions and came

TP Link

across this series of articles on Dick Eastman’s RV site:

How to Build a Long-Range Wi-Fi System – Part #1

How to Build a Long-Range Wi-Fi System – Part #2

How to Build a Long-Range Wi-Fi System – Part #3

Follow-up: How to Build a Long-Range Wi-Fi System: Configuring the Outdoor Access Point

This can be done! However, it takes a little know how, research, and simplification.

TP Link mounted at rear of RV

TP Link mounted at rear of RV

Mounting my access point was easy.  I bought the access point from Amazon as described in the column and mounted it on my RV using a 10 foot piece of conduit with tie straps.  Not the best for moving around, but it did accomplish the immediate need.

the way to think through how this will work is as follows:

 

[RV Park Internet] -> [TP Link on a mast (primary router)] -> [Your wireless acccess point (slave)]

You must know the network SSID for the open network you are connecting to.  I use my phone or computer to find this

Next – for first time configuration of the TP Link, plug in a cable as described in the prior articles.  The things you MUST KNOW:

  • Make sure you set the TP Link to “AP Client Mode”
  • Change the IP address of the TP Link to 192.168.1.1 from 192.168.1.254
    • this setting is under “LAN”, not “WAN”
  • Under “WAN” I made no changes
  • Doing a survey will find the best connection
    • You don’t have to enter the SSID name because a survey will find it
    • You can move the antenna to the 12, 3, 6, 9 O’Clock positions and survey again to find better signals
  • Each time you use the TP Link you will need to correctly enter the SSID of the wireless network to which you are connecting
  • IMPORTANT!!
    • Enable DHCP
    • Set the address range to start at 192.168.1.3
      • This will be one above the range for the slave router

Now we must setup the slave. Disconnect the TP Link after making all changes, rebooting, and verifying you can connect to the internet with your laptop connected.  After disconnecting, connect your wireless access point secondary (slave) router with a cable to your

Lynksys Setup Screen

Lynksys Setup Screen

computer. I will assume you have correctly configured wireless access and passwords.  Type the IP address and log in.  Make sure to make the following changes:

  • Under internet setup you want automatic DHCP — this is because the TP Link will ASSIGN the IP addresses
  • Under network setup where you can set an IP address for the router change the value to 192.168.1.2
  • Under DHCP Server Setting, select “DISABLED” this is because the TP Link will be our Router
  • Save the settings

The last step is where I went awry for a while, so here we go:

  1. Unplug power to everything (clean start)
  2. Unplug the ethernet cables from the computer
  3. Take the LAN cable from the TP Link primary and plug it into a LAN port on the slave
    1. DO NOT plug it into the WAN port
    2. I recommend position 1 but it does not matter
  4. Plug an ethernet cable into position 2 of the LAN of the Slave
  5. Plug the ethernet cable from the slave into your computer
  6. Plug in the TP Link power cable
  7. Wait 30 seconds (let it connect)
  8. Plug in power to your Slave router
  9. Reboot your computer

When the computer comes back on everything should work.

I recommend this site for more troubleshooting help

Professional Development

What are you reading these days?  Where do you get your news?  How do you continue to improve yourself?

I work to read books and learn everyday.  I recently wrote in this blog how I use an e-reader to gain time and read more books.  Previously I have written about using Google Reader to subscribe to RSS news feeds from blogs.  This is essentially where 100% of my news contact and outside world comes from.  Lately, I have been working on more professional development and tried Coursera – an online, free access tool to take college classes.

I want to share some outstanding links to help give professional development ideas to you:

This one was on the Under30CEO.com web site.  It is a list of outstanding blogs to follow:

24 Awesome Blogs and Twitter Accounts Every Entrepreneur Should Follow

Similarly, this one was on the same web site and is a list of free courses everyone should consider.

20 Free Entrepreneurship Courses Online to Check Out

you have a choice today, and depending on how you use your time it could be wasted watching television (especially the wasteful world of pro sports) or you could take 30-45 minutes of “tube time” and learn.

Good luck moving forward!

RV – Living: More to Share (3)

It was another great day in the RV today. Everything went better than expected and the weather was perfect.  I have felt time slow down, allowing me to be more productive.  As a family we are far more engaged with each other, especially with no television.  Sharing

This week at Clark Family Camground

This week at Clark Family Camground

180 square feet pushes our relationships closer, or sometimes to the brink of bickering.  However, we have all gotten along with no issues.

I think most people wonder is, “what’s daily life like versus in an RV versus a full size home?”  There are changes: no yard, no garage, no closets, no dishwasher, minimal hot water, and small space.  On the other hand, everything has a place and efficiency, combined with conservationism, rules the day.  I also find myself outside much more due to the weather and, more importantly, a need for some space.  RVs come in all sizes: from 10 foot scamps, pop-ups, to Class C’s and Fifth-wheels.  Each vehicle has its own mission.  Regardless, RV life is about a lifestyle.

What’s different and the same versus a house?  We have heat and air conditioning.  We have running water, a toilet, and a shower – probably no worse than found in a cheap European motel.  However, I limit my use.  For instance I use the bathroom in the morning to brush my teeth because it’s better to use the public restrooms.  The shower pressure is higher and there is an unlimited supply of hot water.  If it’s raining, I’ll shower in the RV, otherwise a walk in the cool, crisp morning is rewarded with a better shower experience.   The bathroom is somewhat similar; the onboard lav is best for
Bathroomsmall, liquid jobs whereas a walk to the public facilities for “the big jobs” is much more rewarding.

RV parks supply water, cable, and internet.  On the downside there can be difficulty picking up wireless internet.  I have solved the problem via a hotspot on my phone.  These are bills eliminated from daily life.  Many RVers have satellite dishes.  However, to us television is a time waster and has no value other than entertainment to watch a family movie or documentary. Thus, we are best served by Hulu+ and Netflix.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the RV lifestyle is being outdoors.  We take walks and James rides his bike.  It is fun to walk the RV Park observing how others live.  What you do see here is a lot of friendly people.  Almost everyone has some lights hung outside, lawn chairs, canopies, and grills.

Yesterday I met our neighbors when asked if we were from Texas (we have Texas tags on our car).  I explained we were relocating.  She then asked how long we planned to stay.  The honest answer was, “I don’t know.”  I did explain we are moving to New Smyrna Beach’s Sugar Mill Ruins on Sunday.  She then shared they sold everything when they retired and went full-time. From Columbus, Ohio they come to Florida for the winters. Several years later they have bought a small house as a home base, but she prefers the RV life.

As I have answered questions from friends this week I have heard both laughter and curiosity. The common question is, “why live in our RV rather than move to a hotel or apartment?” My short answer, “Because we can.”  LeeAnn and I over the last four years have had numerous adventures: selling everything, moving to our cabin in Georgia, living in an apartment in Dallas, and now trying the RV life.  Each adventure is one most people talk about – we are executing.